Indoor gardening

It's a lovely faux-spring day today, with temps in the 50s, and I really should be out, but I'm wiped from the dash across the finish line with a grant proposal. Shaping and writing it became exclusively my responsibility at the eleventh hour. I'm too old to pull three consecutive almost-all-nighters. By the third day of three hours' sleep the night before, I was so tired I fell off my bike on the way home from dropping off the proposal. I simply couldn't muster the strength to get under way -- the bike and I toppled over. For a change, I'm barely bruised, so there are little mercies.

The days are lengthening perceptibly, though, and my plants are starting to respond. The hippeastrum seedlings (above, right) are crowding themselves in their little flat and will probably need to be re-potted next month. There are signs of growth on five of the adolescent hippeastrum and two of the three adults. I should probably bring in the others, but have been putting it off. No germination in the pansies yet, but my last little sage cutting has finally put out roots so I potted it up today. Another begonia cutting has put out exuberant roots and will need to be potted as well. The trailing rosemary that I forgot to water appears to be well and truly dead. The rescue rosemary from the community garden (both plants) are all right. I lost one or two coleus cuttings but they were duplicates, and the rest seem fine. The Christmas cactus flower I fertilized has definitely fruited -- the ovary is big and fat and reddish. I think it takes a year for the fruit to ripen, but I have patience.

EDITED TO ADD: Some time during the holidays, when a Schlumbergera in a hanging basket was in full bloom on the side to the window, I decided to turn it 180 degrees so I could enjoy the flowers. Now the other side has put out buds and started to bloom. Gee-darn, a whole nother two weeks of Schlumberger-y goodness!

Time for a nap, though, I think. One night's sleep hasn't quite made up for three mostly sleepless nights.

We're not over our Paris TX fantasy yet, although the rumor that it may be a dry town has cooled it a bit.